Flame Caller (24 page)

She turned much slower toward Xander.
He tried to think of what to say in response but couldn’t find the
words. They’d been struggling to survive against Lord Balor and his
assassins and this entire time he’d been not only living with, but
also dating, his mortal enemy’s daughter.

“
Please say something,”
Sammy said weakly.

Xander grinded his teeth in anger and
frustration but said nothing.

“
Xander?” she
asked.

“
Lord Balor ordered the
deaths of my parents and my grandfather. He sent his men after us
and killed Bart and Robert. They would have killed all of us—myself
included—if they had the chance. And you somehow didn’t think it
was necessary to tell me that you were his daughter?”

“
I…” she began but he
quickly turned his back on her.

“
Don’t. Don’t waste my
time with any explanation. I don’t want to hear it.”

He heard her sob loudly but her cry
couldn’t pierce the coldness that wrapped its icy fingers around
his heart.

“
I want you to go,” Xander
said, his voice quivering with anger.

“
Go where?” she
asked.

“
Off the island. Back to
the mainland. To the middle of the ocean. I don’t care. I want you
out of my sight.”

“
Xander,
please.”

He spun quickly toward her and steeled
himself against her tear-streaked expression. She hadn’t bothered
to wipe away the tears running down her cheeks. She had crossed her
arms over her chest and rubbed her shoulders nervously.

“
Please,” she sobbed
quietly.

“
Sammy,” he said
softly.

“
Yes?” she asked
hopefully.

His frown deepened. “I want you out of
my sight and off my island.”

She cried louder as Alicia stepped to
her side. The older Wind Warrior wrapped her arms across Sammy’s
shoulders and led her out of the ruined wall of the
house.

“
I’ll take her,” Alicia
said over her shoulder. “I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

Xander turned his back dismissively,
not bothering to say goodbye to either of them.

They flew in relative silence. The
quiet was broken on occasion by Sammy’s emotional outbursts but she
quickly regained her composure. Alicia looked over sympathetically
toward the younger woman. Despite her equal feeling of betrayal,
the Wind Warrior hated to see Sammy looking so devastated. If
nothing else, it confirmed that she had genuine feelings for
Xander.

“
Give him time, dear,”
Alicia offered as they approached the mainland.

Sammy raised her head and looked at
the approaching river delta. Beyond the triangular shape of
wetlands, she could see marshy and swampy trees hanging from the
shoreline. Thick mosses climbed the tree trunks before dangling
limply from the twisted branches.

“
I don’t think so,” Sammy
replied. “I don’t think he’s going to be willing to forgive and
forget. I lied to him.”

Alicia shrugged. “You didn’t
technically lie to him. You just weren’t completely honest. He’ll
realize that eventually.”

“
This was just so stupid,”
Sammy sighed. “I wanted to tell him the truth so many times.
Somehow, there was always something else that got in the way. Or I
just chickened out.”

“
I like you, dearest. I
have since the beginning. But the secret you kept was a pretty big
one. Your father is in charge of all the people that have been
hunting us to extinction.”

“
But I’m not my father,”
Sammy pleaded.

“
I know. We never
are.”

Sammy looked away from the shoreline
and tried to glance over her shoulder. They’d traveled quite a ways
since leaving the island. Even if the waterspout was still in
place, she wasn’t sure she’d be able to see it from the mainland.
Without it, the island was invisible on the endless horizon of
ocean. Actually seeing the island wasn’t her intent, however. She
was looking behind her in hopes that Xander would know how sorry
she was for the entire situation.

“
He wasn’t always a bad
man, you know?” Sammy said absently, as she turned back
forward.

“
Who, dear?”

“
My father. He was a good
man when I was growing up. He was considerate and supportive, like
a father should be. I know Xander didn’t want to hear it but he
changed when he started visiting the monster in the cavern. I
really think it is the Fire Elemental. It changed him, made him
angry and aggressive. All the things he’s done—including attacking
all of you—that’s not him. That’s the influence of the
Elemental.”

Alicia seemed pensive as they started
descending toward the shore. “Just give him time. If you’re right,
he’ll see the truth once he’s had time to calm down.”

They landed without any further
conversation. Not far from where they touched down, Sammy could see
an outcropping of a wooden pier jutting out over the water. A
wooden structure stood behind it, though she couldn’t read the
hand-painted sign that hung over the front of the building.
Floating in the water tethered to the pier was a long motorboat
that had seen better days.

“
I have to get back,”
Alicia said apologetically.

Sammy nodded toward the Wind Warrior.
She leaned in suddenly and wrapped her arms around Alicia. The
older woman was temporarily startled before she returned the hug.
They separated as quickly as they had embraced without a word of
explanation.

With a nod, Alicia kicked off from the
ground and quickly disappeared into the distance.

Sammy stood in the soft mud and
watched Alicia depart until she was little more than a dark speck
against the bright blue sky. She sighed and turned away, ready to
make the short walk to the building in the distance. Despite being
grateful for Alicia flying her to the mainland, she didn’t actually
know where she was. Her hope was that the wooden structure would
have a phone at least so she could find somewhere to stay while she
waited for Xander.

“
Welcome back,
fleshling
,” a familiar voice hissed in her ear.

Sammy turned sharply, her mouth agape
in fear. Hovering in their air, contrasted against the bright blue
sky, was the dark yellow orb of an eye. It dominated the sky as it
locked its slit of a pupil on her. She immediately felt sharp pain
across her temples, culminating behind her eyes. Sammy cried out
and her knees threatened to buckle.

“
You’re not really here,”
she moaned as she clutched the sides of her head.

A hand suddenly wrapped around her
waist, pulling her upright. A second hand closed over her mouth as
she attempted to scream. She could feel the waxy skin; its ridges
and taut texture felt unnatural.

“
It may not be,” General
Abraxas hissed in her ear, “but I most certainly am. We’ve missed
you, Sammy. It’s time to take you home.”

“
I don’t know if you’re up
there looking down on us but I could really use some advice right
now.”

Xander hugged his knees as he looked
over at the pile of marble stonework that made his grandfather’s
makeshift burial plot. The slope of the island wasn’t so severe
where he sat so he didn’t feel like he was going to slide off into
the ocean, like he did in some areas of the dilapidated landmass.
Reaching out, he ran his hand along the closest of the stones and
searched for some connection with the man who was buried
beneath.

“
I’ve never been much on
religion,” Xander continued as he withdrew his hand. “I don’t
really know how much stock I put in the afterlife or heaven or
whatever you want to call it. But if there is one, I hope you’re
there and watching. Because if you could send me a sign, I’d really
appreciate it right about now.”

Xander wiped his eyes and glanced
hastily around his relatively flat stretch of land. He didn’t think
the aunts and uncles would intrude on his private farewell but he
didn’t want them seeing him so vulnerable. With everything weighing
on his shoulders, the last thing he needed was for them to start
doubting his ability to defeat the Fire Warriors.

“
It’s all coming apart at
the seams. You, Mom, and Dad are all dead. Just saying that is so
hard, Grandpa. Of all of the members of our family, I’m the last
one that should still be sitting here. I know that if you were
here, you’d give me some line about having my whole life ahead of
me but I wasn’t exactly doing a bang-up job with my life so far.
I’m the last person that should be saving the world. Even Dad, no
matter how much he pissed me off, was at least responsible. You
guys somehow put the responsibility on the shoulders of the guy
that was too busy playing video games to finish his philosophy
paper just a couple months ago.

“
With you gone now,
there’s no one keeping this dysfunctional Wind Caste family
together. Giovanni seems supportive and Alicia wouldn’t say a bad
word even if she thought it. I’d be surprised, though, if Patrick
and Thea were still here by the end of the day.

“
I’m trying to hold onto
sand. I’m clenching my fists as hard as I can to keep it all
together but it’s not just the responsibilities of a Wind Warrior
that are slipping away. I’m slipping away, too. This hole in my
chest is getting bigger every day. At first, it was losing Sammy
the first time, despite the fact that she tried to kill me. Then
Mom and Dad—when they died it was like someone took a shovel to the
sides of that hole and dug it as wide as the Grand
Canyon.

“
Then you, Grandpa. I
don’t know if I ever really told you how I felt about you. It
always seemed silly to tell your grandpa that you loved him but I
really did. I thought I was going to shatter when you died. If
losing my parents was like a shovel digging out the hole in my
heart, losing you was like someone taking an axe and chopping to
pieces whatever was left.”

Xander threw himself back and savored
the cool, damp grass soaking through his shirt. A strong wind
coursed through the labyrinth of remaining structures on the island
and rolled over Xander as he lay prone.

“
Now there’s Sammy again,
like we’ve come full circle and every point on that circle was
another layer of crap in my life. I sent her away. I don’t even
know where; I couldn’t bring myself to ask Alicia when she got
back. I should be happy about it, right? But I’m not. I know she’s
the dynamite that’s going to blow apart everything I have left. But
she was also my anchor and I just willingly cut the line and now
I’m adrift in an ocean that just doesn’t make any sense
anymore.”

A cloud passed between Xander and the
sun, casting the island in a gratifying shadow. Covering his eyes,
he looked up at the sky and noticed the dark edges to the cloud. In
the distance, it was joined by more of its kind, filling the
horizon with a brewing summer storm.

“
If you’re up there,
Grandpa,” he muttered as the cloud blew away and the sun beat down
on him once again, “I could use a sign. Anything you can send my
way would really help me out.”

The first raindrop struck Xander
between the eyes. He blinked away the water as it rolled over his
eye and down his cheek. By the time he was able to push himself
into a seated position, the sky darkened as the fast-moving clouds
blotted out the sun.